As brave and faithful as many appear - it is really a short journey into the heart of scandal. When we are there - at the time that calls forth faithfulness - the stories of the faithful show us that folks - run - away.
- if Jesus' teaching is concerned with enabling his disciples not to be caused to stumble by him, he knows full well that in fact they will all be caused to stumble by his death. The Gospels illustrate this process with particular care. Once again the stumbling centers around a fulfillment of Scripture, and one evidently important in the earliest days of the Church. Zechariah 13:7: "I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered." This text appears in Mark 14:27 and Matthew 26:31, as well by an obvious allusion in John 16:32. In all three contexts it appears linked with the notion of skandalon. This is most obvious in Matthew, where the text is quoted to justify Jesus' claim that all would be scandalized by him that night (26:31). Peter refutes this by claiming that he will not be scandalized and receives the prophecy of his denial. In Mark, Peter understands the quotation in terms of stumbling and promises not to be scandalized (14:29). In John, the allusion appears in an exchange where Jesus has said specifically that "I have said all this to keep you from being scandalized" (16:1). The disciples claim to have understood this, and Jesus, to show them that they haven't understood, then prophesies that they will all be scattered.
This way of the shepherd is not easy street. Easy street gets us where we want to go. We usually want to go to a place we judge to be safe according to how we define safe. Therefore, the way the shepherd goes may be - and usually is as we can see throughout Scripture - not our way. Easy street may even be a hard road. And yet, it is still a road we choose to travel - at our speed and under our conditions. Jesus is moving toward the cross. You don't move to the cross by walking down easy street. A person moves to the cross by be a part of a contrary life that does not go along with how the world moves along its way. Each time Jesus teaches and heals and moves into arenas folks are not to go, I'm sure the disciples stuttered a bit. We are told that they followed him but we are also told that they argued and wrestled and doubted and even got the message all wrong. We are told that side of the story because they - the disciples - are us. They are troubled by the scandal of Jesus life and death and -though loving the guy - must and did turn away. The way of God's Reign within the world - the peaceable Reign - is not easy street. If death is a part of this way of Jesus, who wants that! And yet it is that road into the domain of death that shows us another way to be alive. Too often, we all turn down easy street before we allow ourselves to go to the cross.
Connection: When I mention going to the cross, I usually offer a shout out to the people around me. That is how each of us moves off of easy street and onto the way of the cross in our individual lives and our corporate lives. It is the wind, whipping Spirit of God's unfolding community of saints that offers the courage for cowards like me to take a step from one street onto this other way - this Jesus way. That communal action is full of dialogue and questions and resistance and pats on the back and words of reservation and encouragement. And yet, in the end, the gathering of saints becomes the story and words of life that offer us another opportunity to follow.
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